Aftermath
by reniRCx
Summary: Ichigo hears something in the middle of the night...what does it have to do with Uryu? Comfort has never really fit anywhere into their relationship. post-226, warning for slightly handwaved canon compliance


**A/N: A bit of fluffy IchiIshi interaction, takes place directly after 226. Not AU, but not entirely canon compliant in some places. If that's okay with you, read on!**

Ichigo awoke with a suspicious feeling in his gut, and at first assumed that either Kon had gotten up to something in the middle of the night, or it was a response to one of the nightmares that infiltrated his sleeping hours all too frequently after his time in Soul Society.

Quickly enough, as the nagging feeling wouldn't go away, Ichigo realized that what he was feeling was going on right now. He was sensing some usage of spiritual power!

Obviously his abilities had grown after all the training and boosts he'd endured in Soul Society, but his sense of spirit power had yet to fully develop to shinigami standards. But somehow, he could sense what was going on, and the flavor, almost, or the spirit particles were _definitely _familiar.

Ichigo stood and looked out his window over the slumbering Karakura Town. All seemed silent. What was going on?

The slight feeling he got from the spiritual activity was undoubtedly familiar, he just couldn't quite place it. Annoyed, and too unsettled to go back to sleep, Ichigo got dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and quietly walked downstairs and into the night air.

It occurred to him to go into spirit form, but the activity didn't feel like a Hollow. Or a Shinigami, for that matter. What did that even leave?

_Ishida._

The thought popped into his head and something clicked with his spiritual senses. He was sensing Quincy activity. He'd never been privy to it before without Hollows or other enemies around.

So then- why? What was Ishida doing using his powers when there wasn't any other spirit world entity in the vicinity?

Ichigo found himself walking in an unfamiliar alley, finally realizing that he had been walking toward the spiritual pressure for quite a few minutes. Just as he realized that, and stopped in an attempt to get his bearings in relation to the places he knew in the city, the flow of spiritual power stopped, leaving Ichigo in a dark alley leading to nowhere.

He kept walking forward, figuring that it was probably a better idea than turning around. He had made several turns, finding his way back would be difficult if he didn't have a reference point for where he was going.

As soon as he passed an open street, a welcome relief from the alley, a light-haired, grim-faced man walked quickly by, as though he was late for something or restraining himself from running away.

Nobody was late for anything at two in the morning. Ichigo, out of curiosity, started back in the direction the man had come from.

He didn't have to go far. Down an alley to the left of the street he was on, the carnage from a bloody, uneven battle stretched almost into the street. Ichigo turned, glancing back to see if the man was still in sight, and then stepped into the side alley. The man's expression had been impossible to read in the few seconds Ichigo had had, but his posture had marked him either as a guilty winner or humiliated loser.

What would Ishida have been fighting a human for? Ichigo assumed that he was still going the correct way.

The surety increased tenfold as Ichigo proceeded into the open area between buildings at the end of the alley. Blood stained the walls in some places, and this kind of wreckage could only be caused by a spiritual battle.

It took Ichigo several seconds of looking at the carnage before he noticed the motionless figure lying on a concrete step on the other side of the area. A few seconds after that, he realized who it was.

"Ishida-kun!" he cried out, launching himself into a run and almost tripping himself several times on his way over. He didn't feel embarrassed or feel the need to apologize for the "-kun" slipping out. It may not be how they normally addressed each other, but this was out of panic and desperation.

"Ishida! _Uryu! _Are you alright?" Ichigo called as he came up to the motionless form of his friend. No, not alright.

A few quick checks showed that Ishida was merely unconscious, not…well, he was just unconscious. His pulse was weaker than it should have been but steady, though the blood loss that Ichigo attributed to it was disturbing. He was breathing softly, occasionally in short gasps. Equally alarming was how torn up his clothes were- his shirt practically in tatters, and revealing the blossoming damage underneath.

Ishida's body was littered with small cuts and bruises- and that was only the visible. An odd wound, shaped like an asterisk and dangerously close to his heart, was still leaking blood, so Ichigo covered it with Ishida's torn t-shirt and put pressure on it.

What had happened, to do this to the normally powerful, at least compared to earthen threats, Ishida? And who had that man walking away been? What kind of powers must he have to be able to do this?

In his desperation and panic, Ichigo found himself putting pressure on the chest wound with one hand and tightly holding Ishida's in the other. Ishida's formerly limp hand tightening on his was the first sign that he was regaining consciousness. The second sign was a moan of pain so heartwrenching and primal that Ichigo cringed in sympathy. "You're going to be fine, it's over," he murmured.

"K-Kuro-saki," Ishida choked out. Alarmingly, blood came out of his mouth with the words.

"I'm here. Don't speak yet, it's okay," Ichigo said. He'd known certain medical basics since he was a kid, on account of his father being a doctor, and one of the core elements he'd been forced to memorize was that you never moved a patient until…well, that's the part he wasn't sure about. No paramedics would be coming here- too many questions. Ichigo didn't even know the answers to most of them.

So he just sat, eventually giving up putting pressure on the wound as it started to clot in favor of resisting the urge to stroke Ishida's hair. He'd sat like this with Karin one time, when she had tumbled down a slide and broken her arm. He'd sat right next to her while they waited for their father to get there, with one arm wrapped around her small frame and the other hand stroking her hair comfortingly.

Ishida would not respond well to that. It was odd enough that he was returning Ichigo's grip on his hand, occasionally clenching and relaxing as he dealt with waves of pain. His breath came ragged and uneven, and Ichigo suspected internal injury.

"What happened?" Ichigo eventually asked. At this point the foot he had been sitting on was asleep. "And don't you dare say nothing." Because Ishida, of all people, actually would.

He said nothing. Or rather, didn't say anything.

Okay, then. Time for that later. Ichigo looked around, knowing that his own home was much too far for Ishida to walk to in this state (and no way in _hell _he was…no, Ichigo wasn't going to think about that).

"Do you live near here?" Ichigo tried, concern and the utter unexpectedness of the situation staving off any feelings of awkwardness. Actually, it was pretty odd that he had no idea where Ishida lived after they had done so much together.

"Few blocks," Ishida managed. His breath had become light and wheezy, and it seemed like even the few words he formed took too much effort.

_Going into shock,_ Ichigo thought. But the injuries themselves didn't seem bad enough for that. It was probably a combination of that and exhaustion- it was the middle of the night after all, and it didn't appear that Ishida had been sleeping at all.

"Okay, we'll walk there. Lights would be good. Cleanliness," Ichigo babbled, the strangeness of the situation and the lack of answers Ishida was providing beginning to take their toll.

"Ugh." Ishida finally broke contact with Ichigo, using both his hands to stabilize himself as he sat up. He swayed, and would have fallen over again had Ichigo not caught him and brought the smaller boy's thin frame to rest against his shoulder. Ishida didn't comment on the continued awkwardness of the situation, and as far as Ichigo was concerned, it was fine.

They stayed in that position for a few minutes. After the initial onslaught of pain and the rush of blood from his head, Ishida was breathing better and looking more lucid. "My glasses," he said shortly, his voice cracking but steadier than it had been. Ishida leaned away so he was supporting himself and gazed at the sky.

Ichigo fetched the discarded glasses that lay in an open area near them, marveled at the fact that they had come out unscathed, and handed them to Ishida. Ishida, in turn, put them on, frowned, cleaned the lenses on his shirt and put them back on his face.

Ichigo decided to ignore the fact that Ishida's hand was shaking throughout the procedure. "Think you can walk?" he asked, standing up himself.

"Of course," Ishida replied testily, struggling and groaning his way to his feet. Ichigo stayed where he was and tried to keep himself from helping, knowing that Ishida would decide if he needed support. Ishida attempted to take a deep breath, but it caught in his throat with a small, easily suppressed noise of pain.

From all the bruises, Ichigo diagnosed. Optimistically.

"I can manage on my own, thank you," Ishida said crisply as he tested his legs, walking away from the outcropping. Ichigo could see the pain on his face with every step, and decided that no matter what happened, he was not taking any of Ishida's usual bullshit tonight.

"Great. Then I'm just going to follow you to your house because I'm bored," Ichigo replied, glad that the occasion was starting to seem more like their usual interaction.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Ishida accused, making a left out of the alley. Ichigo noted that they were walking in the opposite direction the man he had seen earlier had been going.

Ichigo shrugged. "Stalking you, of course. Never gets boring." Ishida gave him his favorite condescending look, which was always even more effective through glasses, and Ichigo continued "Who was that guy running away from that place?"

"Running away? That's not like him," Ishida mused. Ichigo waited for elaboration, and after a few minutes deciding that he wasn't going to get it.

Ichigo finally broke the silence with a gentle "So…is neither of us going to answer each other's questions tonight?"

"As far as I know," Ishida replied, not even turning to look at his companion. As they walked, Ishida appeared to be having more and more difficulty, until he finally stopped at a bench where he unceremoniously sat down.

"You okay?" Ichigo asked, eyeing him. Sure, Ishida had never been athletic, but no one should be this worn out after walking a quarter mile.

"Just need a minute," was Ishida's tight reply, as he hunched down with his elbows on his knees. "Also, I'd like you to leave now. My apartment is close by and I've been far too much of a burden to you already tonight."

"Nonsense," Ichigo responded offhandedly. "You should know, I'm not going away until I'm sure you're alright _and _I find out what happened."

Ishida looked up and for the first time that night, truly caught Ichigo's eye. Their gazes remained linked for a moment in mutual questioning and reluctance, before Ichigo backed down. Ishida rose unsteadily from the bench a few seconds later, and led Ichigo across one more street, coming to a door and stopping. He bent down to retrieve a key from under the doormat (Ichigo was faintly surprised that not only was Ishida careless enough to leave one there but careless enough to let Ichigo see) and unlocked it.

Two doors on opposite sides led away from the small landing, and a flight of thinly carpeted stairs faced them directly. Ishida got up three, gripping the railing like a lifeline, before Ichigo came up behind him with a loose arm of support and silently helped the injured Ishida up the rest of the stairs. Despite Ichigo's help, he looked as though he was about to fall over any second.

Two doors met them at the top of the stairs, and Ishida took a different key from a rather obvious place under the door to open it. Ichigo almost voiced his doubts about his friend's common sense, but mentally enforced that this was neither the time nor the place.

The main room of the apartment held no surprises; it was small and ridiculously neat. "You live here with your dad, right?" Ichigo asked. He'd heard Ishida mention his father once, so he assumed that he was still alive.

"No," was the cold reply. It was clearly meant as a conversation stopped, but Ishida pressed on.

"Your mom, then?" Maybe his parents were divorced.

Ishida turned away and flipped on a light switch. "My mother is dead, and my father is a cheat and a traitor to the Quincy race and to me." Walking into the flat's equally neat bedroom, Ishida selected a new shirt from a dresser, taking off the torn one and unceremoniously throwing it in the trash. His skin was covered with a startling array of grazes visible by flecks of dried blood and varying shades of just-appearing bruises. Ishida didn't even examine himself in a mirror before putting the new shirt on, wincing as he did so. "So if you're done with the interrogation, as you can see I am home and can take care of myself, though I appreciate your assistance."

"Stop trying to get rid of me, it's insulting," Ichigo replied, sitting down in one of the two chairs around an empty table. "And like I said, I'm going to stick around until you tell me what happened."

Ishida sat across from him, wrapped his hands together on the table, closed his eyes, and sighed deeply. "It was a training exercise. Nothing that warrants your concern." Ishida's fingers twitched and he gave up on the idea of posture all at once, elbows on the table with his head in his hands.

He looked hurt and exhausted, and Ichigo knew that at this point, his presence was probably just preventing Uryu from going off to take a quick, probably painful shower and then go to sleep. "Then what's that wound on your chest?" he asked, deciding not to give up on this opportunity, with Uryu as honest and cooperative as he'd ever seen him.

"Insignificant. It's a testament to how weak I was that it even broke skin," Uryu replied. "But then, that must have been what it was about in the first place. I never could really tell."

Great. Now Uryu was finally _saying _things, now all Ichigo wanted was for them to make sense. He said as much, bluntly.

"I lost my powers as a Quincy when I battled a deranged shinigami named Mayuri in Soul Society. My father approached me, proposing that he had a way to restore them. This was the way." Ishida pressed a hand over his chest.

Ichigo didn't respond for a few minutes, shocked. How could a father do that to their own child? And why hadn't Ishida told any of them about losing his powers in the first place? "But why did he beat you up like that?" Ichigo asked, not sure how to phrase any of the other questions on his mind.

"I don't know. Maybe he had to. Maybe he wanted to." Ishida cringed, as though remembering the events of the last hour or just responding to the pain of his injuries.

_That's just wrong, _Ichigo wanted to say, but hesitated for fear of sounding insensitive. But he knew that some parents were capable of doing awful things to their children, even if he'd never really experienced it for himself. Sora and Orihime's parents…that was a story he didn't like to think about. The Ishida family was obviously really messed up, but in a different way. "You should get some rest," Ichigo said after awhile of not saying anything. He didn't know if he wanted to hear anything more.

"What an idea," Ishida said dryly, with heaping sarcasm.

Ichigo got up to leave. "Whenever anything happens…you know you can talk to me, right?" he asked.

"Don't expect it," Ishida said, reverting back to sarcasm. "And Ichigo?" he finally looked up again, eyes making contact with Ichigo's. "Thank you…for being here tonight."

"Anytime," Ichigo said breezily. He paused at the door, giving one last lingering, concerned look, and walked out, more thankful for his own family than he had been since the death of his mom.

**A/N: That was MUCH longer and somehow deeper than I originally intended it to be. It was origionally propositioned as shameless h/c, with handwaved canon compliance. There are a few aspects of this fic that do not fit with the canon because I read the chapter in question again and did absolutely no other research. I do not need the inconsistencies pointed out to me. That being said, reviews of this as a standalone writing piece would be awesome. xD **

**Also, because this makes the reader think a bit more than I like my fanfiction to, the person Ichigo saw early on was Ryuuken, he overreacted to Ishida's injuries a bit in the beginning because he was scared, and this takes place right after chapter 226. **

**:****:renircx:****:**


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